


Bucky vs. Body Mods

by Rainne



Series: Bucky vs. the 21st Century [10]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Body Modification, Body Piercing, Gen, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-06-02 03:47:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19433284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainne/pseuds/Rainne
Summary: In which Bucky explores corporal agency.





	Bucky vs. Body Mods

In late February, Bucky came home with something sparkly in his ear.

“Nice,” Sam said when he saw it. “Where’d you get it done?”

“That salon down by the coffee shop,” Bucky replied. “Green Dragon.” He reached up to fidget with the earring, then aborted the movement. “Forgot I’m not supposed to touch it.”

“Still sore?”

“Not really,” Bucky replied. “Well, maybe a little bit. But they said not to touch it because it might get infected. I don’t know if my version of the serum works on stuff like that or not, but I figure it’s better not to risk it.”

“Smart,” Sam agreed. “What made you decide to get it done?”

Bucky shrugged. “Been thinking about it for awhile. Shell – the barista at the café – has one, and I really like it. They said I should go down to Green Dragon; their partner did the piercing for me.”

Sam grinned. “It’s always nice when you can help out friends.”

“Yeah,” Bucky agreed. “That’s how we always used to do it, you know, in the old days. You’d ask somebody who they knew that could do whatever and somebody would know a friend or a cousin or something who did what you needed. Everything stayed in the neighborhood and everybody helped everybody out.” He paused, then grinned. “Except the coppers. _Nobody_ helped them.”

For awhile, the earring was the only thing Bucky had, and he was satisfied with it. But one day he told his therapist, “You know, I’ve been thinking about getting another piercing.”

“Why is that?” his therapist asked.

Bucky shrugged. “I think…” He paused, considering his next words with all the thoughtfulness he could manage after several months of counseling. “You know, for a long time, my body didn’t belong to me. _I_ didn’t belong to me. I was a _thing,_ you know, that they used and treated however they wanted to. But now…” He reached up, fiddling with the diamond in his left earlobe. “Now I’m my own person again. Everything about me belongs to _me,_ and I can do whatever I want with it.”

“That’s an excellent motive,” the therapist replied. “And of course, piercings are temporary – at least at the beginning. If you decide you don’t like it, you can take it out and let it close up and none the wiser.”

“Yeah,” Bucky agreed. And when he showed up at therapy a week later, there was a discreet gold ring in his left eyebrow.

It did not escape anyone’s notice that both Bucky’s piercings were on the left side.

When he asked Steve for a particular drawing, Steve didn’t think anything of it. He drew the Howling Commandos’ signature wing – the one Bucky had worn on his left sleeve – and Bucky took the drawing with thanks, laying it on the computer desk beside his laptop and studying it every so often. Neither Steve nor Sam knew what he was thinking about, but he didn’t offer and they didn’t pry. Bucky would speak when Bucky was ready to speak, and not before.

So it was a surprise on the evening in mid-March when he came home and said “I want to show you something.”

“Sure, Buck,” Steve said, setting his book aside.

Sam muted the television and looked up, waiting.

Bucky shrugged out of his polo shirt and turned around. On the back of his right shoulder was the Commandos’ wing, both the correct direction and also reversed, like a pair of angel’s wings. Under the wings, in an arc, were the words “This We Defend” – the modern motto of the Army.

“Wow,” Steve breathed, standing up and coming over to look at the art more closely. “Hey, is this – is this from my drawing?”

“Yeah,” Bucky replied. “She took it and flipped it and put it together like that.”

Steve blinked back sudden tears. “You made a tattoo out of my art,” he said softly. “Bucky, that’s…”

Bucky turned around to face Steve, his face going a little red. “Yeah, well,” he said, and gave a diffident shrug. “If I was gonna let anybody draw on me forever, it’d be you, wouldn’t it?”

Steve flung his arms around Bucky and gave him a tight hug. “That means a lot,” he said softly.

Bucky hugged him back, then gave him a gentle shove. “Don’t let it go to your head.”

Steve laughed, stepping back and wiping at his eyes. “Yeah, too late,” he said. “I’m already getting a swelled ego over it.”

Bucky reached out and gave Steve a gentle noogie. “Asshole.”

“Jerk,” Steve replied, laughing.

“If you two are done with your little love fest,” Sam said, “I’ll take a picture of that tat so it can go on Instagram, if you want.”

“Yeah,” Bucky said, pulling out his phone and tossing it to Sam. “I want.”

_Ink by Jessa McCoy at Green Dragon Tattoo in Brooklyn,_ the caption read. _Art by Steve Rogers._


End file.
